The first thing I want to say is, energetically, I feel lighter when I get bodywork and I want other people to feel that way. It’s like 10 pounds lifts off the body just from getting a massage. I think that setting that time aside for yourself is a testimony to self love and self care. It is preventative medicine really, it keeps us out of the doctor and out of the chiropractor. I also think that when you go and get bodywork and feel better, it is easier for you to give love. I really believe that it ripples out on the goodness quotient.

Massage also brings body awareness. I consider myself someone who is incredibly aware of my body, but I will get bodywork and think, wow, I didn’t know my body was experiencing tightness and constrictions there. It reminds me how interconnected the body is in general. I might have tension in my glute, but it could be coming from something in the front of the body. Also, a lot of us spend time looking down at our devices, which really rounds us down, and massage can help return us to a healthy home base. We use so much technology that it is easier and easier to forget about how the whole body is connected, and so it is good to develop the awareness of the relationships of our body.

Massage also allows for some deeper work to be done, and gives us a chance to sort of tune up the muscles that are doing all the supporting and the grunt work, if you will. Once that muscle tension has been alleviated, performance is automatically enhanced in whatever activity you are doing. Having that tension limits possibilities for range of motion, and so releasing it increases possibilities in the field of whatever you are doing.

If you are an athlete, getting massage is as important as brushing your teeth in the morning. You can’t expect that much out of your body if you don’t give it the care it deserves. Massage promotes longevity, because you can be active for longer, or be an athlete for longer. If you want to be active, you have to treat your body well.

The formal training of mindfulness takes place on the meditation cushion by re-directing the wandering attention. Breath and body awareness is the best place to start. By re-directing attention from the thinking mind to the breath or the felt sense of the body, we begin to condition our attention to be in the present moment.

ex: smelling the sweet aroma of chocolate in an ice cream shop

FEELING TONES- Pleasant, Unpleasant, Neutral

Every single experience or event has a feeling tone to it, i.e. a categorization of “I like it” (pleasant); “I don’t like it” (unpleasant); “I am undecided or neutral about it” (neutral). By paying attention to the experience and its feeling tone, we can begin to examine our inner relationship to it, e.g. clinging to what is pleasant or pushing away and resisting what is unpleasant.

ex: I love the smell of chocolate

PERCEPTION- Mental Filters, Assumptions, Stories

Between stimulus and response, there is an approximate gap of .25 seconds. It is in this gap that we filter an event based upon past experiences. Our MAPS or “My Assumptions, Perceptions and Stories” become our reality and our reality is most often not in concert with what is factual or true. Perception then is NOT reality; it is only the ego misrepresenting the past in the present moment.

ex: chocolate reminds me of wonderful family experiences

CONSCIOUSNESS- Intention to act, e.g. reacting v responding

If we are not paying attention, our inclination will be to “do something”, i.e. to react with attachment (cling to it) or aversion (get rid of it) which lead to unhealthy and unproductive mental states like anger, blame, judgment/becoming. Paying attention to the truth of the present-time experience allows us to respond with curiosity and compassion instead of being stuck in a reactive pattern, e.g. indulging.

ex: I can’t believe I ate the whole thing. I feel sick and emotionally drained

Cupping therapy is an important part of our integrative health practice because it supports the process of many of our treatments. I talked with several of our talented therapists about how it complements the work that they do. Every session of Ha.Lé Bodywork is adjusted to meet the needs of the client in the moment. For example, our therapists may take a sports massage focus for highly active bodies, a therapeutic or medical massage focus to treat pain and structure issues, or a lymphatic focus to move fluids and support the healing process. Often a combination of techniques are used, and cupping therapy helps support many of these treatment goals.

Sports bodywork:

Cupping therapy helps to jump start myofascial release. The negative pressure of the suction combined with movement gives a different sensation than other myofascial techniques and helps the muscle reset itself to where it needs to be because the fascia has released. It is a great complement to other techniques and can sometimes create shifts that provide instant relief and allow chronic problems to just fade away.

Therapeutic bodywork:

Using cupping therapy after an Ashiatsu treatment really helps to bring the blood flow to the area, especially any area that is feeling stagnant, like the back or arm. The suction also helps to release the muscle when it is contracting, making for a faster release and bringing blood flow more quickly to the area. Afterward, people tend to feel either really energized or like they just ran a marathon.

Lymphatic bodywork:

Cupping can be very effective in helping to break up scar tissue that is impeding lymph flow, but it is not usually indicated for treating lymphadema or other lymphatic issues directly because it can be too aggressive for the lymph system. However, cupping works through the use of negative pressure, and there is ongoing conversation in the lymphatic massage community as we learn more about how to use cups and other negative pressure tools gently enough to support the lymphatic system.

Acupuncture:

Cupping facilitates better movement of blood and qi in an acupuncture treatment because of the openness of the tissue. The cups create negative pressure, as compared with massage, which uses positive pressure. This negative pressure opens up muscle and tissue, which works in concert with acupuncture needles to move qi.

As the health care field grows its understanding of where pain comes from and how we need to change our approach to treating it, it is our great honor to be care providers in relationship to individuals. HaLe’ is grassroots, which means we are growing an innovative way, building from modern research and ancient modalities to better cope and deal with health issues.

Evidence shows that only 20% of medical issues can be 100% dealt with by the medical field. We have a great regard and respect for what surgery and medicines and other western medical practices can do for us, and want them available for ourselves, our families, and others. Yet there is so much more to health than what western medicine can fully treat.

What we do is collaborate and partner, drawing understanding of the body’s dynamic response that happens daily in our practice. Every time a person comes in and connects with their breath­­, when there is movement, when there is connection, then there is a dynamic response that happens. We are not bringing people a shallow patina of “feel better”; we are delivering a systematic method of health and well being that is accessible to every single person no matter what your age, medical history, or where you come from.

Integrative medicine is not a new way of treating health and wellness; it is an objective. It increases connectivity for an individual because that is what integration is. This is not about one system of the body, but about many systems working in unison for the betterment of whole health. There is a bottom up response coming from the patient as they demand care on a holistic level, and that broader scope is where the care paradigm begins to switch. We are here to provide support and create space for that to happen.

Health is a dynamic system of balance and counterbalance that is complex and interconnected. Every person should walk away feeling better than when they came in our door. Even when you aren’t feeling bad, there is still room to feel better and to engage in the processes of health.